Salem High School - Quaker Yearbook (Salem, OH)

Page 19 text:

“The poet or artist ’ said Thoreau, “never had so noble a design but some of his posterity at least could accomplish it.” The design of our generation is a search for knowledge. It is a plan to end injustice, destroy prejudice, and preserve freedom. The design is not peculiar to this generation alone; it has been heard before. But never before has any generation felt the urgency of reform. To us has fallen the job of creating new ethics for an old society. We must spend all our time constantly analyzing, comparing our conditions, and searching for the self-knowledge we need as a measurement of all action. Each emotion we experi- ence will pervade our entire background of knowledge. We must keep these emotions in mind when we begin to think our own thoughts, build with our own hands, and act on our own conscience. We must each possess an intense de- sire to achieve these ideals. The restrictions necessary in the search for truth require an unfaltering dedication to ourselves and our beliefs. This dedication holds us faithful to our duty toward enlightenment and progress of human- ity, Our duty is fulfilled only as it inspires posterity to con- tinue the quest. It is our hope that they will be proud of what we have struggled to achieve and will want to con- tribute as much of themselves. When we are inspired by this hope, when we guarantee ourselves dedication, then we can begin advancing on the Chaos and the Dark.

Page 21 text:

Classes Youth is dynamic. It is protective, candid, curious. It is thirsty for experience, perceptive when experiences are gained, understanding of the common differences of man- kind. To youth, all experience is a window through which it views the vast expanses of the untraveled world. Youth is essential for the transformation of experiences to knowl- edge, and it is the source of every issue of mans under- standing, The vision of youth is vitally important. Occupa- tion or class cannot be glorified at the expense of the in- dividual, for within the individual is the origin of all ac- complishment. When organized efforts are forced to the ex- treme and when over-organization is substituted for order, all life becomes routine. It is then that youth is replaced by the most immovable resistance to change. Youth is progressive. It is recharged, renewed, and reac- tivated by itself and its accomplishments. The inhibition of youth means the destruction of the individual, but place- ment of youth alongside his equals—alongside fellow men —stimulates a potent, creative strength. Youth can be simi- lar and unique, perceptive and naive, wise and foolish, ded- icated and irresponsible. Youth is the most complex, spe- cialized, and misunderstood force in today’s society. Youth is a force; it is more powerful than a hundred years of wisdom. As Socrates was a “gadfly” for Athens; so too is youth—all of youth—a “gadfly” for a dormant society, urging it to stop injusticet brutality, hatred, and prejudice. Dazed, the dormant society tries to comprehend youth as it philosophizes and experiments with life. And youth stares back, charged with its characteristic vitality, wondering what society does with its spare time.